Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Why They Fight

"All right, let's sum up. This year in History, we talked about the failure of democracy." - Starship Troopers

So, let's see what we've got: when Plame was outed by Cheney's office she was working on the Iran file, tracking WMD technologies; the congressional probe into NSA spying will likely now be dropped; new photos of Abu Ghraib frat pranks have filtered out; an Ohio Republican county commissioner has been charged with the attempted abduction of a 14-year old ("come here, little girl"), and Democratic senate hopeful Paul Hackett has been pressured by his party to drop out of a race the popular Iraq war vet could probably win to ensure a slot for a career politician who probably won't.

What's missing? Oh yeah: Harry Whittington has a pellet in his liver, now too, as well as in his heart (though he's said to be doing "extremely well"); Dick Cheney admits to drinking; and the ballistics just don't make sense at the reported distance of 30 yards.

Anything else? Just everything. Everything touched by the fallen angel of the American republic has become a farce, begetting tragedy. It's why The Daily Show has become the premier news program in the United States, because citizen/viewers are permitted to laugh at their condition, but powerless to do anything to change it.

It seems a defining characteristic of the present hegemon that if they deny it, it must be true. Should Bush ever deny having danced the hokey pokey with Jack Abramoff, the next week we'll see the pictures of the two in the Oval Office, shaking it all about.

Many Democrats, bless their blinkered souls, thinks all this means they're winning. That historic low poll numbers for Bush will translate into great gains next Fall and a sure victory for a safe, DLC candidate in 2008. They think, if they can't impeach the President for taking the country to war on a lie or the de facto President for Plame, then surely to God Cheney will be forced to resign for shooting a man.

As if. He's not going anywhere unless the "Lord calls him home" - whoever, and wherever, that may be for Dick Cheney - because even though Life Goes On for most people as if it isn't really happening, the Big Show with Iran is just ramping up. So Dick won't be leaving just yet.

It's wrong, I think, to call what's coming the "War with Iran," when actually it's just another campaign in the Long War that's intended to survive us, and walk the world through its greatest crisis of conflict and resolution. This is spelled out clearer than ever in the Pentagon's latest Quadrennial Defense Review, a .pdf of which can be read here. (See also this thread on the RI discussion board.)

As Bill van Auken notes, the language has been massaged so the enemy is no longer identified as "terrorists" but as "extremists" or "violent extremists." US forces are transitioning from "battle-ready" to "battle-hardened" to meet the "new strategic environment" in which the United States will not only be going to war with nations, but also "conducting war in countries we are not at war with." The Pentagon also intends to "provide US NORTHCOM with authority to stage forces and equipment domestically prior to potential incidents when possible."

How long has it been since you watched Starship Troopers? Perhaps you should again. I caught some of it last week on television, and I was surprised at how reality has outpaced it. I don't mean the space travel and the giant bugs; I mean the abandonment of democracy and dutiful dissent and the remodeling of America into a martial society. The bugs, of course, were never bugs anyway. They're the eternal, dehumanized other that needs only extermination. (The original title of 2002's giant spider movie Eight Legged Freaks was "Arac Attack.")

Paul Verhoeven's film is smart enough to satirize Robert Heinlein's rather straight-ahead authoritarianism (for instance, citizenship is a privilege of those who sign up for "federal service"), though satire seems a hard thing to grok for those who were disgusted by the story of "Hitler Youth in love."

Besides expounding principles of governance which could arguably be described as fascist, Heinlein was also - again, arguably - a student of the occult, and a familiar of the principals of the Babalon Working: Jack Parsons, L Ron Hubbard and "the Scarlet Woman," Marjorie Cameron.

In the 1993 the essayWhence Came the Stranger: Tracking the Metapattern of Stranger in a Strange Land, "Adam Walks Between Worlds" writes

Cameron and others recall that Heinlein and Parsons were quite close friends. They may have met at the Los Angeles Science Fiction Fan club wich maintained a reading room -- they were certainly seen there together. It was also common for science fiction authors to tour the Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratories that Parsons co-founded. Heinlein was particularly avid in availing himself of such tours. He used to take years off to study advances in science and often wrote glowing of NASA. So here was Parsons, the wunderkind of the rocket scientist community while Heinlein was its chief PR man and visionary. Space travel was both men's passion and livelihood. They had much in common, including their friendship with L. Ron Hubbard, who must have mentioned one to the other. Heinlein lived within driving distance of Agape Lodge which often performed the Gnostic Mass and, judging from Stranger and other writings, Heinlein was quite familiar with the ritual.

While doing his "federal service" Hubbard wrote a novel that virtually prefigures The Turner Diaries entitled Final Blackout. Published in 1940 and "generally considered Hubbard's best science fiction novel," Final Blackout is described by an Amazon reviewer as "an adventure story written for fascists, by a fascist":

Here's the set-up: a world war, started by weak, democratically elected elitists, has been dragging on for decades. A courageous soldier known simply as "The Lieutenant" overthrows the corrupt military power structure and takes matters into his own hands. He defeats all challengers and installs himself as a military dictator, bringing peace and prosperity to war-ravaged Britain. This new regime's torture and execution of dissidents is mentioned only in passing -- but I guess you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

It's not just science fiction, but the para-science of UFO research that finds itself triangulated with the occult and the far right. In Messengers of Deception, Jacques Vallee catalogues contactee themes such as intellectual abdication, racism and social engineering that support Paris Flammonde's observation that "a great many of the contactees purvey philosophies which are tinged, if not tainted, with totalitarian overtones."

In an interview six weeks before 9/11, Bob Dylan said "We are living in a science-fiction world where Disney and Disney's science-fiction have won. This is the real world. Science-fiction has become the real world, whether we realize it or not."

That's true, even though we're not fighting the giant bugs yet. It's true, because enough people have been made to see no difference, and we who do are now the "extremists."

874 Comments:

Anonymous said...

i don't know if any of you read comics, but there's an ongoing story by writer warren ellis called 'planetary' that features a twisted version of the fantastic four as the main villains. 'the four' were transformed in space near the beginnings of the american space program and returned to earth to take control of the agency by which they were employed and are ultimately able to accrue such vast wealth and resources that at the beginning of 'planetary' they effectively rule the planet. soon after the main character, elijah snow, is apprised of a small bit of what the four have done to this world, he breaks into one of their labs and confronts william leather, one of the four.

"why?" asks snow. standing among myriad artifacts that the four have kept hidden from the world, he says "i only understand the barest part of what you do. i know that you've done more than your share of making the world mediocre. the things we've seen here alone: if i understand them correctly then they alone could save millions of lives a year. why?"

i think that's some of the most profound dialogue i've ever read, and those words pop into my head every time i consider one of the millions of untold crimes that this regime commits, that all the regimes have always committed without fail. they believe they are different. they believe they are privileged. they believe that nothing can stop them and for the most part, they're right.

but nobody is untouchable and it's time we all started acting like it. there's something to be said for delving into an endless list of offenses, but if what we've seen thus far hasn't gotten us moving beyond the shock and awe of big crime, then nothing will. i'd just hate to still be sitting here when the dust clears a week from now and they've already dropped some new unfathomable bullshit on our front porch.

maybe it's just a stupid comic book, but the image has always stuck with me, and it seems like an appropriate characterization of all the real-life exclusive profiteers that never seem to disappear with time.

We have all seen the cartoooooons of Dick Cheney doing a David Ickey reptilian revelation by scratching his head. But the 21st century is rapidly becoming the 23rd. I see chemtrails again as NY got hit with a big snowfall. "We own the weather" said the government forces. And we know that New York is enemy territoir, despite Rush and and Barry Farber and and and the infamous Sean Hannity being based there, not to mention all them Rockefellers and so forth the CFR and Illluminati (that I really don't believe in!). So we see that the enemy is attacking New York again, as at 9-11 as they attacked New Orleans also. Its the ******* civil war again --- don't you get it? It is not NOT the TV show "V" or the "X-Files" or the "Lone Gunmen." It is the South Rising Again. They just haven't told us yet. The nations of the world haven't even thought about a new American Civil War, much less which side to choose this time around! You know that 1865 was only a blink of an eye away in time --- and feelings have not cooled down here one bit, whatever images we project to outsiders.

9-11 was an attack of the South against the North, as was the JFK and MLK assassinations and the OK City bombing. The whole Embassies and USS cole series of attacks were like the Oswald in russia and mexico stories, just a set-up.

The whole story is Massive Global Takeover by the Invisible Unknown People.

as i commented on a psost the other day and i'm not sure if you read it jeff, the novel 'philip dru: the administrator' is a similar and interesting one that predates the hubbard one by 30 years,

"Col. Edward Mandell House, Pres. Woodrow Wilson's most intimate advisor and League of Nations co-architect, provides the means by which the President could fund such a conspiracy for dictatorship in his book Phillip Dru: Administrator:

"[The conspirators] began the formulation of a new banking law, affording a flexible currency.... This measure was based upon the English, French and German plans.... [The conspirators] regarded this as one of the most pressing reforms, for [they] hoped that it would...completely destroy the credit trust, the greatest, the most far reaching and, under evil direction, the most pernicious trust of all." (p. 151)

By establishing the Federal Reserve System, the House of Representatives could be extorted and pressured into funding the necessary provisions introduced in the Senate by those Senators allied to the Presidency. Col. House continues to elaborate the machinations behind corrupting all levels of the general government by abolishing State's rights and their appointment of Senators.

The book goes on and on exposing the exact means in which internationalists came to control and establish a dictatorship in America by manipulating its political system. Ultimately, the "high priests of finance" conspire to control the country by electing a controlled President and 20 controlled senators and fund the entire conspiracy through a private central bank:

"[The conspirators] selected one man in each of thirty of the States, some of them belonging to [their] party and some to the opposition, whom [they] intended to have run for the Senate.... [They] did not intend that [their] Senators should all vote alike, speak alike, or act from apparently similar motives.... They could cover their intentions in many ways.... [The conspirators] had no intention of letting any one Senator know that [they] controlled any other senator. There were to be no caucuses, no conferences of [their] making, or anything that looked like an organization. [They] were the center, and from [them] radiated everything appertaining to measures affecting 'the interests.'" (pp. 55-56)

While it is proposed by Col. House that there were to be "no caucuses, no conferences..., or anything that looked like an organization," it is just as easy to have such deliberations if those involved own or control the media and can therefore keep it out of public view. An uninformed electorate, as Col. House notes, is easily controlled:

"The citizens at large do not scrutinize measures closely; they are too busy in their own vineyards to bother greatly about things which only remotely or indirectly concern them.... This selfish attitude and indifference of our people has made the [conspirators] and [their] methods possible. The 'big interests' reciprocate in many and devious ways.... The average American citizen refuses to pay attention to civic affairs, contenting himself with a general growl at the tax rate, and the character and inefficiency of public officials." (pp. 158 & 160)

Many who have investigated this conspiracy, thought at one time to be implausible by James Madison, have questioned the motive to overthrow liberty and bring the people under the chains of oppression. Col. House again answers:

"Actual money...was not seldom given in the relentless warfare which the selfish interests were ever waging against the people, but it was intrigue, the promise of place and power, and the ever effectual appeal to human vanity. That part of the press which was under corporate control was often able to make or destroy a man's legislative and political career, and the weak and the vain and the men with shifty consciences, that the people in their fatuous indifference elect to make their laws, seldom fail to succumb to this subtle influence." (p. 203)

Does a conspiracy exist? According to Col. House, one does exist. Do they meet in caucuses or conferences? They assemble themselves each year as the Bilderberg Group. Are a large number of government officials part of any single organization? The Council on Foreign Relations is represented with over 100 of its members in top government positions. Has a private central bank been established? The Federal Reserve System. Have State's rights been overthrown? States have lost their representation in Congress and control over their police, i.e. Homeland Security. Has the U.S. Constitution and Republican Government been replaced, or overthrown, with a charter and/or government?

oh yeah,also went and started reading one of the books by abraham merrit that someone refered to here recently,he was writing sci-fi right at the beginning of the 20th century and whoever mentioned him said his work had influenced crowley and the like,the one i am reading is called 'the moon pool'

The ever-morphing relationship between *popular culture* & what passes for reality these days can provide a lot of insights for those willing to look beyond a directly causal connection between the two.

Then it seems, if things are THIS bad, and the people/"sheeple" are THIS asleep, then does this mean all is lost?

If so, then does it seem the only way to escape slavery to the NWO is to kill ourselves, like the Imperial Romans or Japanese did long ago? So far, I've gotten no answer to this question that satisfies.

Paul Verhoeven's film is smart enough to satirize Robert Heinlein's rather straight-ahead authoritarianism (for instance, citizenship is a privilege of those who sign up for "federal service"), though satire seems a hard thing to grok for those who were disgusted by the story of "Hitler Youth in love."

Damn, Jeff -- you are a poet of the strange in service to the real, and we're lucky to have you because of it.

I remember seeing "Starship Troopers" and sensing the satire, but wondering about its urgency. Sure felt dead on to me, but dare I admit it to my girlfriend? I could because she didn't really care anyway. Still, the flick seemed to me to be a warning shot to the collective about the wave of unreality beset upon us, and its capacity to sway us into its Disneyfied dreamworld where satire is unheard of.

Winter came into New York like a lion this weekend, dumping 26.9 inches of snow in Central Park and breaking a record set in 1947. This after a month of temperatures in the 50's and 60's. Nobody's quite sure what's going on with the weather here but could something more sinister be at work? As weather watcher Jeff Ragovin notes, this "NorEaster" had some eerie cyclonic features.

I feel strange being the one to defend Heinlein, since I was never a big fan of his, but I have to say that he was far more of a libertarian than an authoritarian (and he despised fundamentalism, having been raised in it.) However, as a former naval officer, he did have a certain tendency to idolize the military -- and Starship Troopers was the book in which he gave that tendency full rein.

I don't doubt that Heinlein did know Parsons, by the way. "Rocket to the Morgue" -- a roman a clef murder mystery by Anthony Boucher from the early 40's, in which the main characters are all based on figures in California science fiction circles -- includes recognizable equivalents of Heinlein, Hubbard, and Parsons, among others. Also, Jack Williamson, who was another member of that milieu, definitely did attend a Crowleyite mass around that time (and wasn't particularly impressed by it), so I'd be surprised if Heinlein hadn't as well.

But science fiction writers always tended to see occultism more as raw material for their stories than as anything to take altogether seriously. The relationship between the two is far more ambiguous than might seem on the surface.

I agree that Civil War divisions is a central feature of the U.S., and has been since 1776. A couple of memorable books from the 70s described how the post-confederate power structure of the "Sunbelt" was gaining supremacy over its Northern counterpart. Power Shift by Sale was a socio-economic analysis while The Yankee and Cowboy War by Oglesby took a conspiratiorial view. I haven't seen much on this theme lately, but I'm occasionally reminded of it, for example when I saw a widely circulated web graphic that displayed the similarity of slave and free states before the war, and of red and blue states in 2004, or realized recently that all our presidents for the last forty years have been elected from Texas, California, Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

It doesn't necessarily follow that 9/11 was part of this, as the worldwide resurgence of fundamentalism and conservatism since around the late '70s is also a real phenomenon. Then again, all we know for sure is that we don't know what really happened.

I'm not a Heinlein fan either, but I've always admired Starship Troopers as a brilliant polemic. By the way, I read it as anti-libertarian and pro-collectivist. In its future, the voting franchise is limited to people who've demonstrated that they're willing to sacrifice their own lives for the greater good. Usually this means military service, but not always -- he mentions testing survival equipment on other planets, and so on. This seems like an deliberate challenge to the libertarian view that if everyone acts in their rational self-interest then things will all work out, as if guided by an "invisible hand." It's interesting that Starship Troopers was published two years (1959) after Rand's Atlas Shrugged (1957), the definitive attack on collective responsibility; the timing makes me wonder if it was a conscious response.

I've never read Colonel House's novel, but there's an interesting description of it in one of Christopher Lasch's early books.

By the way, in case anyone didn't know, Jack Williamson is still alive.

When I saw Phil Dick for the last time, he was beside himself with glee, having recently received a fat check from his agent for film options on a long shopping list of novels and short stories, in every case for a figure in excess of what he had gotten for their original publications. In addition, the first in the series of optioned stories, Blade Runner, was nearing completion and Phil had seen the rushes and heartily approved of how it had turned out.

I glanced around at the small, dim, shabby apartment he occupied and said "I suppose now you'll move out of here and get yourself a mansion with a swimming pool and hot and cold running starlets".

He loomed over me me where I sat on a threadbare sofa, and slowly shook his head.

"I have responsibilities," he intoned.

"But surely you have some of the money left, enough to at least rent a place more in keeping with your material success".

He gazed down at me with cocker spaniel eyes.

"No Ray, I also have my priorities. There are things more important than worldly show. In point of fact, I have already spent most of the money."

"Donations to your favorite charities?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Gifts to the wives of all your friends?"

"How little you know me."

"A shipment of little pills to make you sick?"

"Wrong again, Ray. I know you are the soul of discretion, but if I tell you the last of my many secrets you must swear on a Bible or at least on your copy of Stranger in a Strange Land that you will not reveal what I tell you until after my death"

"Good grief Phil!"

"Swear!"

"All right, I swear."

His slightly slanted catlike eyes darted about the room, as if seeking some hidden eavesdropper.

"You know when we were kids at Hillside School in Berkeley, I believed without question that Walt Disney personally drew all those talking ducks and mice".

"Well, so did I. I took it for granted. Of course we both know now that he didn't even draw his signature. He probably didn't himself actually invent Mickey Mouse. He fooled everyone."

"Not everyone Ray. Can you imagine Larry Niven being taken in?"

"I guess not."

"No Ray, Larry would have laughed at us. I can just imagine his scornful, hurtful laughter if he had found us out."

"But that was a long time ago Phil. We've changed."

"Oh? Larry hasn't changed. He still has no room in his universe for talking mice. Today, if anything, he'd be more scornful, more sarcastic than he must have been as a child."

"Get to the point Phil."

Again He glanced around. He paused, gathered his courage.

"I still believe" Phil whispered.

I burst out laughing.

"You too, Ray? Yes, you and Larry have changed all right. Only I have remained faithful."

"So that's it? The big secret?"

"That's it."

"I have to say, I don't believe you. You had me going there for a second, but I don't believe you really still believe in Disney."

He looked hurt.

"I went on a pilgrimage", He said, rising out of his usual slouch to stand like an indignant christian martyr before a Roman persecutor.

"To where?"

His dignity send me into another fit of laughter.

"Disneyland," He said defiantly.

"What?"

"Disneyland. I walked the whole way."

He made it sound as if Disneyland. was on some other continent when in fact it was only a few blocks away.

"I don't believe you , Phil."

"I have proof."

"Let's see it."

He took out his wallet and extracted a laminated card. "It's a pass to Disneyland, good for one whole year."

"You must have paid a fortune for it". I took it in my hand and stared at it. It appeared to be exactly what He said it was. "To pay so much for one visit".

"For one visit, yes. But it's a bargain for several times."

"Several times?"

"Many times."

"How many?"

"Every day at first. Now only two or three times a week."

"My God Phil."

"There's a little cafe in Disneyland. They have outdoor tables. I've gone there so often the waiters greet me by my first name".

"That's amazing."

"Even Mickey. Mickey greets me by my first name. You know a tulpa is Ray?"

"No."

"In Tibet they believe that if you imagine someone, set a place for them at the table, talk to someone as if He was really there, talk to other people about him as if He was real, after a while you'll glimpse that someone out of the corner of your eye. The food on that someone's plate will start to disappear. You'll hear someone breathing at night when you're all alone. Finally one night, out of the shadows a someone will step into the light from the campfire and sit down, and perhaps, perhaps..."

"Yes?"

"He'll speak. Come with me tomorrow. You'll see. Yesterday he was there at the next table. I didn't dare look at him directly."

DICK: Ursula LeGuin in The Lathe of Heaven gets into the idea of dreams being somehow objectively real.

LUPOFF: Yes. Effective dreaming.

DICK: I was fascinated by that. There is, of course, a contemporary heretical sect of scientists and laymen who, based on Jung’s theory that UFOs were projections from the collective unconscious, that have begun to talk about mental contents as being actually objective. This is the Tulpa theory that they can be projected into the outer world and even be photographed, and are sensible objects. They are objects of our percept system and are projected from the unconscious – which is just one step further from Jung’s idea that an individual will project elements of his unconscious. Now we have the collective unconscious of a number of people being projected and forming Tulpa objects. I’ve read some interesting material on that. It’s also connected with the weird scientific discovery that the observer influences the performance of sub-atomic particles.

Now one of the basic psychotic ideas is that you can affect objects by just thinking about them, and yet this has crept into quantum physics. By picking up the Jungian thing we arrive at the conclusion that we can and do project a lot of our outer reality. This is exactly what I was trying to do in my early stories.

Thinking about it further, the thing about Heinlein is that he was an elitist. He didn't have much faith in democracy because he thought most people were ignorant peasants. Sometimes he hoped for a kind of meritocracy where the elite would come to rule naturally -- that's what he was probably aiming at with the idea of a militarized society in Starship Troopers. More often, he despaired of society and wrote about loners who did whatever they damned well felt like.

There's also a third alternative for elitists -- to dream of a Straussian system where the elite control the peasants by some combination of force and Machiavellian guile. But I can't recall Heinlein ever falling into that deep a hole.

Heinlein's worst legacy is the Grover Norquists of this world, who think they have a right to do whatever they can get away with. And that is quite bad enough.

I adore both the short Heinlein novel and the Riefenstahl-parody of the Verhoeven movie. In different ways, they are both way over the top and they're both important.

And both of them flirt with fascism but are fundamentally not. My favorite comment comes from Samuel R. Delaney, I believe, who wrote how powerful it was to read "Starship Troopers" as a kid. The punchline for him was that the hero was a "person of color" but that fact wasn't mentioned until near the last paragraph. That's what convinced him he was reading about the future.

I suppose this is where the Elvis sightings come from. No irony intended, because I remember as if it was yesterday that I have seen Agnetha Fältskog from ABBA walking down the main shopping street of my city once during the 80s, and I don't live in Sweden...

Imagine the implications: It could well be that right-wing Jesus freaks reach a critical mass and create a Tulpa of him - the zombie version of the "Second Coming". I hope somebody shoots him quickly then when he starts talking like a televangelist. Or imagine an army of mind-created, right-wing Jesus Tulpas suddenly appearing all over the Earth... If our universe works that way, it has a serious design error. Or God has a strange sense of humour.

If "they" can do "it" (magic, etc.), we can do it too I'm sure. Which is the reason for 24h cable TV, thought control by the media and cheap beer. Take that away, and "they" would be scared as hell of people awakening to their potential.

I hope nobody minds if I blow my own horn: My open letter to the Democratic Party (already sent to the Ohio, Hamilton County (Ohio) regarding Mr. Hackett, my home district's candidate, is on my blog:Matts3rdEye instead of rigorousintuition in the address bar:www.matts3rdeye.blogspot.com/

Yet another reference to Crowley and the dark side. Is there no end to the fear?Yes, congrats to Jeff for the Koufax Nomination for "Best Writing", an award he definitely deserves to win, and has my vote.But dare I suggest to our esteemed "Cautiously pessimistic" writer and many of you..ah.. scary individuals......need to get out more and see the humor of it all.May I suggest The Blue Republic.comor spurious-george.blogspotwhich are great at forgetting what ET in Arcadia had said as the "monsters under our beds".Trickster indeed.

I mean really. Jeff, do you want your son to one day ask:

"Daddy, who was that Scarlet Women" anyway?.. and can you buy me that new XBOX909?

Occult, has no bias. Just as "The Force" has a dark and light side, Such is the nature of Duality, but neither side truly represents the whole, for the whole is the union and anhilation of both. Being a student of the Occult, you are eventualy initiated into that which is beyond thought, i.e. beyond good and evil, beyond bias. Now this is what the quantum physicist call the "Quantum Vacuum" or zero degrees kelvin, where the activity of an atom ceases. This is beyond space-time and is completely "accessable" without any material aid. Basicaly when you are at the point in your initiation,where you have united micro and macrocosm, you have solved the riddle of, "what magician makes the green grass grow?" and ofcourse you understand that the real power of creation is not a factor of good and evil, but simply of cause and effect. So the occult may be linked to all these things but is by no means the cause of any effect, only the magicians can determine that.

in response to aj. or maybe we've aready seen the humor of it all already, we've stared at the daily show for too long. all i end up feeling in a nagging way after i watch that show is how hopeless it is to fight.

which begs the question...

Smith/Oracle: Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why, why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace - could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now! You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?

all the negative forces..they try to cloud our minds up with all this crap..to make us forget the basic foundations of life.

Neo: Because I choose to.

they try to make a decision like this seem invalid. unworthy.

all they can bare to say, know to say is:

Smith/Oracle: This is my world! My world!

when its really no ones world.

everything is what you make of it. not in a 'i can see walt disney if i pretend hard enough' way but in a real practical sense. it is possible. the very essense of what the 'illuminati' do is to destroy any real sense of true self worth.

With even senior Democrats lining up behind the measure, its lone opponent, Sen. Russell Feingold, was preparing amendments he said would strengthen its curbs on government power. Congress is racing to renew 16 provisions of the law that are set to expire March 10.

Back to "The Last Days of Philip K Dick" for a moment, please. What happened after the interaction mentioned here between Phil and Ray? Did Ray go to Disneyland and see Walt? Does this "tulpa" turn into the actual person/object being imagined? If so, then what? I'm having a hard time putting my arms around this one. Help me out a bit here.

Hey, did anybody answer that question way back from "Broken Hearted Patriot"?

The best I can think of is the final sentence of Walter Karp's great Liberty Under Siege: American Politics 1976-1988 : "A bleak round and a grim tale, but, said Jefferson, 'We are never permitted to despair of the commonwealth,' for power supreme remains with the people and Oligarchy is never secure."

What if, just if, there really were threats that we, the sheeple, aren't aware of, that warrant a near complete subversion of democracy?

What is some kind of extra-terrestrial threat that requires setting up a global hegemon as a military dictatorship to confront, or manage, the threat?

What if technology is developing so fast that global human security, not just national security, assessments describe it as spinning out of control, and requires a near totaltarian blanket of repression to try to brunt any damange?

What if threat assessments have determined that peak oil, climate change, environmental devastation, have the potential of throwing society into chaos, and that the only way to keep it together is, as Noam Chomsky has suggested, a dictatorship.

Because, frankly, if these things could happen, then I might be persuaded to allow them to happen.

To paraphrase glorious leader Bush Jr., I wouldn't mind living in a dictatorship if I was untouchable.

Alot of the events that were written in the neo-cons schedule playbook, "project for a new American century," have indeed occured. They wanted a new Pearl Harbour and Bush [who hid behind a goat book and a room full of children that day] let them have it. Even I , a simple minded Canadian citizen, cheered on the invasions of the evil destroyers of freedom Afghanistan and Iraq and prayed they would pay. Because by then, the media had put my mind into a propaganda pinfold and fed us enough BS printed on newspaper not even fit to pick up my dog's poop with. But after awhile the smoke cleared [when I bought a computer] and I started to read up on other peoples views. People who weren't connected to the media mafia and who's insight and devotion to the whole truth and balanced reasoning is what persuaded me. I realized that alot of people who live with a stern belief system had to get off the fence , do some math and make a conclusion. Most of them now will see that the stories given to us by the mainstream have revealed themselves through the passage of time to be nothing but one sided and just don't add up anymore. There is still alot of good in people in today's world and nothing feels as good to me as a clear conscience. Thanks.

To further understand the wack metaphysical that Philip K. Dick was operating via, I recommend " I Am Alive and You Are Dead: The Strange Life and Times of Philip K. Dick" by Emmanuel Carrere and Timothy Bent. It is very well written tribute which explains Dick's 'crazy times' like when he checked into a drug rehab clinic in Canada.

What I like the most about sci-fi is that whatever the setting, there is a future for us. That had a profound impact on me growing up under the threat of a world-wide nuclear exchanges and whatnot.

I've only read a few of Heinlien's stories, but liked them for the most part. I haven't read Troopers and always wondered why people say he was a fascist. Seemed like more of a hippie to me. I thought it was sort of a hippie 'free-love' mentality that inspired some parts of Stranger, until Jeff opened up one of his trademark cans of mind-explode on us =)

Seems like there's no getting away from PKD, I really gotta read the last 2 VALIS books. A Scanner Darkly is supposed to be released soon, I believe it uses a live-action/animation blending technique called Shroomovision or something.

The last two chapters of the Bible, in the Book of REVELATIONS are very hopeful after the violence and destruction predicted 2,000 years ago. The Beginning of a New Heaven and A New Earth.

I was converted back to Christianity in 2 semesters of Art History, seeing so many paintings of one man's life, Jesus, that lifted up the dignity of everyone as an ideal and many times and places as practice.

At the end of Will and Ariel Durrant's CEASAR AND CHRIST volume of their study of world history, Durrant says that after Christianity was accepted in Rome, "Incredibly brutality was replaced by unprecedented charity." And these "hints of heaven" in C.S. Lewis' favorite phrase has given people hope of what will be.

Read up on the Resistance to the Nazis and http://www.CrystalLinks.com has some wonderful paintings of hope and some meditations with music esp. on the Atlantis section.

I hope you can regain hope and that your broken heart will be healed."The Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out." Prologue to St. John's Gospel, an almost gnostic mystical hymn at the beginning of this gospel.

A Catholic priest who was a healer said that the Russian Orthodox put their heads on this passage while praying for a healing for themselves or others.

Several of Jeff's readers on this site have mused that the misnamed Illuminati/Bush/Bilderberg, etc. evil is a sort of back door way to God -- if evil to this great an extent exists and if we have the conscience to be appalled and sickened then there is something in us and in the Universe that is as great a power of Good or we would not be aware of such a thing as evil.

Not all Christians are fundamentalist or rightwing or hate or dismiss art and literature and music and other "hints of Heaven" be sure to accept the Graces when they come because we need all the strength they bring to live life to it's fullest and fight this evil and prepare for the return of Good.

Washington D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold released the following statement this afternoon following the Intelligence Committee Meeting.

“The Intelligence Committee’s failure today to begin an investigation of the administration’s illegal domestic surveillance program is inexcusable. The Senate Committee charged with conducting oversight of intelligence matters has a responsibility to look more deeply into the President’s illegal secret wiretapping of Americans. The President has broken the law and Congress needs to hold him accountable.” ==Statement of Senator Russ FeingoldOn the Latest on the Patriot Act February 16, 2006

"The Majority Leader's concession to put off final votes on the Patriot Act deal for almost two weeks gives the Senate time to consider whether this deal is good for the country, and allows the American people their chance to be heard. Contrary to an erroneous news report, I will continue to oppose this flawed deal, insist that the Senate jump through every procedural hoop, and demand the right to offer amendments to improve it. As Chairman Specter noted, the deal makes only "cosmetic" changes to the Patriot Act. No amount of cosmetics can disguise the fact that it fails to protect the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Americans."

***What explanation do the Democrats have for voting in favor of the Patriot Act?***

this is sort of a good thing--read Glen Greenwald on this he will make you want to live again!

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/

The NSA scandal grows & other matters

The story in yesterday's Washington Post suggesting that the White House is finding success in its scheme to shut down investigations into the NSA scandal caused great celebrations in some quarters and great despair in others, including here. All of that was quite impetuous and premature. I'm not sure what the source was for that Post article, but multiple events even over the last 24 hours make clear that this scandal is growing tentacles, and that thereare numerous fronts on which intense battles are being waged over the Administration's lawlessness...==Want to have in independent investigation on the wiretaps? Sign Sen. Robert Byrd's petition here:

The courageous Sibyl Edmond's site and link to her government Whistleblower protection site. Please sign Sibyl's petition to release the redacted portions of the Senate 911 Report and to ungag Sibyl so that we can learn more of the truth about who is to be held responsible for 911:http://www.JustACitizen.com

The troopers in Starship Trooper didn't seem to be affected by the fact they lived in and fought for a dictatorship. In fact, enough space seems to have been allotted within the totaltarian society's operations to allow life's drama to be played out. They could achieve, love, have friends, even in the military.

I believe this is the key message of the book and the movie.

Any regime or control elements in a human society simply has to allow room for human drama to be played out, and then this regime can do what it wants. The American military understands this. Providing fast food outlets, familiar retail shopping and other entertainment for its soldiers when they are in Iraq or Bosnia. Heck, any government since the inception of government has known this to some degree or another, though with varying success in applying it.

But apply too much control, too overtly, or allow their members too ostentatious advantages, and their control quickly disipates. This current regime of neo-cons, Straussians, imperialists, foreign and commerical interests and corrupt pols were so very close to success. We were willing to fight against the "bugs" who seemed to threaten our way of life happily oblivious that it also furthered the regime's goals.

The cracks are already beginning to show. They have got too greedy. They have been tightening the screws a little too overtly. Their "bugs" have quickly shown themselves to only too human. Our way of life is under threat from looming mega-crisis in economic, energy and environment.

I just happened on a mention of this a couple of hours ago -- and it struck me almost (but not quite) too weird to be believed. (So of course I had to share. :-) )

The robot sits in a room within a room, together composing a 1970's apartment environment, comfortable and inviting. The soundproofed inner chamber islolates outside noise and completes the illusion; there, Philip K Dick sits on a sofa, hosting conversations with visitors who enter. The conversations are easily viewed through sliding glass doors and windows (thus onlookers will have the feeling of "spying" on the PKD robot conversation). The conversations are also telecast to a plasma screen display outside the booth, so that the conversations can be viewed from far away. The outer room will be like a casual hangout space, with a bar and bar- stools and chairs. On the walls outside the booth, a number of old televisions present grainy footage of old PKD interviews, modern perspectives on his life, works, and philosophy, robotics progress of late (segments on singularity::VALIS), and about the PKD android project and its creative team.

Well, back in the 60s and 70s researchers warned what would happen to the U.S. if the JFK assassination was allowed to remain unsolved. Solving the JFK case was the one thing that would have exposed the gang of criminals running the country before they got any further. The opportunity was lost, and it's been downhill from there. Now they control the military, the media, the judiciary - in short, everything.

Which one will lead more lost souls to hades, the death metal frontman with the upside down cross on his T-shirt or the TV evangelist who say's, "God will bless your home if you send 500 dollars." The blind leading the blind. If oldmen like Pat Robertson and the others like him who have been been brainwashed by government zionists into thinking God turns a blind eye to killing your neigbour then I see no diffence between terrorists and the fence sitter Sunday christian. If you have accepted the words of these false prophets willingly then you have failed in your duty to "test the spirits" by judging individual actions and not words.

Symbolisms are most sacred to those who follow the teachings of the occult. The devils triangle and select numbers are often used by those to show they are devoted to lucifers ways. Most people in power from Iran to Australia, are placed by men so sadistic they would slaughter the whole human race to please their satanic fallen angel. These are not men, only demons control the earth and the bible makes this quite clear that satan controls this world.

And if the dim minded people care not what government will do to destroy freewill then it shall be as it was in the day's of Noah. The evil will be purged once again and the good along with it because you allowed it to grow.

His threat was apparent in his rural county numbers. What a loss. He probably doesn't know what hit him yet. Maybe he'll get pissed off and take on election fraud. Maybe Santa will give me a new BMW this Christmas.

In an interview six weeks before 9/11, Bob Dylan said "We are living in a science-fiction world where Disney and Disney's science-fiction have won. This is the real world. Science-fiction has become the real world, whether we realize it or not."

Oh, yes. The Disneyfication of America has been quite successful.

For those interested, I continue to recommend the superb book : Walt Disney World and America, by Stephen M. Fjellman, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992: 492 pp.

I really, really appreciate your attention to the dark underside of the Occult and its connection to various negative forces in the ruling elite. But is EVERYTHING about the occult sinister? Granted, there seem to be some rather nasty "entities" one can contact. Even traditional fairy-lore attests to that : some of the fairy-beings were not nice. But there were also beautiful, loving beings who wanted to work in partnership with humans. Similarly, not everyone involved in the occult is part of some dark fraternity, and interest in the occult does not make one a card-carrying member of that fraternity. One must be careful to differentiate. You are doing an excellent job of uncovering the workings of, shall we say, the Sith. But are there no Jedi at all?

[...]Granted, there seem to be some rather nasty "entities" one can contact.

[...]But there were also beautiful, loving beings who wanted to work in partnership with humans.

[...]One must be careful to differentiate. You are doing an excellent job of uncovering the workings of, shall we say, the Sith. But are there no Jedi at all?

Yes, there are Jedi. We call ourselves "etheric warriors", and train together in chat rooms to psychically battle identified targets with increasing success. The method is referred to interchangeably as either "blasting" or "boosting", and can be done alone or in a group, locally or remotely to your target, and gets more effective with practice. We even have our own light sabers, called the "PowerWand", which anybody can make with a little electronics background (or buy otherwise).

But if you're unfamiliar with orgonite (e.g., the emissary of The Force, Luke...), you should probably start your journey of discovery there, and work towards joining a chat-boosting cell or at least learning on your own (it does get easier in groups).

We have also found a few beautiful, loving beings who want to work in partnership with humans to disable the parasites in charge as they are being harmed as badly as we are, particularly sylphs (in the sky) and cetaceans (in the water), and some have even been interacting positively with plant devas on land. All three of which love, love, love orgonite for its healing, balancing, anti-predatory properties. The dolphins have even devised an orgonite design for us to make them we can give them something they can easily place wherever they need it in their watery world.